MUNDOMATERIAL

Explaining why consumism should worry us all is not an obvious task, but Annie Leonard achieves it with apparent ease in her video. I find particularly interesting the way she differentiates between cost and price payed by the final consumer for a product, something I’ve struggled to explain many times. I think we give too much importance to what we pay when we buy something, but too little to the environmental and human cost that a product may have. I have no doubt that to start changing our understanding of life, business and manufacturing first we have to understand where things come from, how they are produced and if we really need them. Another interesting concept mentioned in the vide is how industry, to sell more and more, has transformed durable products into perishable ones. Something that started with pens or disposable coffee cups and is now happening with mobiles, computers and televisions, which have a much higher environmental impact. Certain groups have started to... 
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In early March 2010, the European Union approved a genetically mofidied potato crop to be grown in Europe, the first one since in 1998 Monsanto’s MON 810 maize was approved, which is engineered to be resistant to the European corn-borer caterpillar. The approved potato variety is Amflora, developed by BASF for industrial applications such as lubricants, sprays and animal feed. When the news came out, some people suggested that it was to be used in the production of bioplastics. I always considered a bit risky to used GMO in the production of a product that bases part of its market appeal on environmental benefits and considered that European producers of bioplastics have an advantage over producers elsewhere that do use GMO crops as feedstock. It has to be said that resistance towards GMO is mostly a European concern and that public resistance to them in other world regions is not that high. Naturally produced starch is a combination of amylose and amylopectin, both polymers of glucose.... 
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